Eclipse - Feb 8 - 22, Another Wonderful Cruise

[Elusive_Cruiser]

This is a bit of a long review, but it will hopefully answer some of the questions that we ourselves had prior to sailing.

 

This was our fourth Celebrity and first Eclipse cruise. We’ve also sailed Princess and HAL, but Celebrity has become our line of choice. Overall, we rate this cruise 10+.

 

We were sailing in a Concierge cabin on Deck 12 (Resort), with a 123go beverage package which we upgraded to premium.

 

Embarkation went very quickly. We arrived at Port Everglades at around 10:30am and waited only minutes before checking in. We were a little concerned that traffic may be heavy due to the heavy port load, but this was not an issue.

 

Once onboard I went immediately to the internet lounge to get signed up for our account before it got busy. Was very surprised to find no one else there yet and the very delightful young lady had me on my way in less than 10 minutes. (Previous experiences with staff on Equinox were not positive). Over the two week cruise the accessibility was on and off, but generally not as bad as I thought it may be, based on previous posters comments.

 

We had Select dining. We typically eat between 6pm – 7pm and after the first week we discovered Cebu’s section and returned every night after that. Think he’s looking to move up the corporate ladder! He was very engaging and fun. We’ve not had such a positive experience in 6 cruises.

 

We’ve always enjoyed our meals in the main dining room, but this cruise, the food was over the top. We would normally avoid beef, as it is generally not up to the standard we enjoy at home – so am thankful we decided to give it a try. Not sure if Celebrity has changed their supplier, but the beef was the best we’ve ever had on a cruise ship. We enjoyed every meal we ate.

 

We also dined at Qsine, Tuscan and Murano. By far Qsine was our favorite. Had to go back twice to continue enjoying what we missed the first time. We returned to Murano for the Murano Lobster and we were not disappointed. I don’t think we’ll to go Tuscan again. We love the ambiance, but the food quality remains exactly what we see in the main dining room. The ambiance is not worth the upcharge, IMHO.

 

The food on the buffet was consistently good. We were being served by the staff for most of the cruise (Noro, see below) and the staff did a good job keeping the lines going.

 

Bar service was perhaps the only area we wouldn’t give a high rating and mostly due to the Pool Bar service. I’ve never seen one bartender singlehandedly upset so many people. The main guy had zero personality. I did not see him smile once in 14 days. This might be forgivable if it’s due to him concentrating on getting peoples orders straight, but he couldn’t even keep track of who needed to be served next and consistently would let someone sit and serve four others ahead of them. Normally our favorite bar, we started running up to the Mast Bar to avoid the irritation.

 

The rest of the bars had friendly staff, but not the high energy we’ve seen on all prior cruises. The only exception was the Molecular Bar and the Rendezvous.

 

We did not feel that the quality service was in any way affected by the high number of free drink packages. Other than the pool bar, service was always quick.

 

Unfortunately, on this sailing, the ship was affected with Norovirus. I don’t recall which day, but it was relatively early on. This was also handled extremely well. Naturally, the salt and peppers were removed from the buffet and there was no self-service. There were also no cloth hand towels in the bathrooms. The staff were always at the dining entrances with sanitizer and I would’ve hated to see the result if someone tried to circumvent this procedure!!! It did not really seem much like a suggestion, but rather, a mandatory application of sanitizer was to be had! There was constant cleaning going on, all day, everywhere throughout the ship. There were lots of reminders (Celebrity Today, special notices in cabins, on screens in theatre, etc) on maintaining hand cleanliness.

 

We kept hoping that the code red status would be removed but it remained for the duration of the sailing. I understand that the next sailing embarked late and a very deep clean was done prior to their boarding. Now personally, I would prefer the inconvenience of Code Red to illness, so this did not bother us a whole lot. There was a lot of inconsistent information about how many people were sick but the staff stuck with their story of ‘approximately 20’ passengers. Many felt the number of ill must have been considerably higher due to the high level of precaution, but based on my recent research, Code Red is usually followed when there is as few as 5 of 2000 passenger who are affected.

 

Guest Services on the Eclipse are a wonderful group of people. We had some noise issues in our cabin caused by a nearby crew gate. Ellen at Guest Services stuck to us like glue as she attempted to get the problem resolved. While the problem never did get fixed, we were treated so respectfully and with care it was hard to be upset! Celebrity really stepped up to the plate. In fact, when it turned out that our valet luggage request was cancelled due to flight time change, Ellen graciously offered to check us in and print off our boarding passes.

 

Our cabin attendant, Antonio and his assistant, Marijan were also top notch. They looked after our every need (which I like to believe are few!!). Almost every morning Marijan would come sprinting to open my cabin door as I juggled two Cafe Al Bacio coffees and a bag of croissants – it was almost like he was waiting for me! We even got random towel animals!

 

The popular cruise director, Sue Denning is also very present onboard. We missed (unfortunately) her late night performance in the theatre and hoped there would be a repeat but there was not. We heard it was one of the better performances in the theatre. We took in a number of shows - some better than others. Shows aren’t a high priority for us, so won’t say much here.

 

Disembarkation went extremely well. Again, we were concerned due to the heavy port load. We were planning to do valet luggage service, but our flight departed four minutes too early to qualify. The valet service company is extremely strict about this. Instead we did self-disembarkation. We were told to meet on Deck 3 at 7:45am. Trying to get an elevator (aft) on Deck 12 at 7:00am proved a little challenging as many elevators were ‘out of service’. We were a little frustrated by this. Then we got to Deck 3 to find out we were departing from Deck 2. Not happy. Why didn’t we just go to Deck 2 to start with? We have all our luggage and now we have to haul it down another flight of stairs? And, there was a very very long line up through the dining room, in one side and out the other.

 

Turns out, Celebrity had this well under control. Once we reach the end of the queue, we were directed either to two dedicated elevators (hence the out of service!) or down the stairs (with staff assistance if you wanted), down to Deck 2. The original queue was very long, but it moved very quickly. A huge improvement over the procedure we followed last year on the Equinox. In addition, there were opportunities for people to jump in the queue but the staff were very quick to move people to the end.

 

Customs line was short, cab line was well organized. We were at the Fort Lauderale airport by 8:15am for our 11:26am flight!

 

Regarding the Valet Luggage service – if your flight leaves 11:30am or later (FLL) and are with certain airlines, you can use this, even as a Canadian. Unfortunately, Air Canada is not one of the listed airlines, but United is. We were really disappointed our flight was too early!

 

Perhaps, at the end of the day, the kudos go to Captain Panagiotis Skylogiannis. We’ve never heard so many staff comment about ‘this is the best captain I’ve worked for’ and he, and his officers, were extremely present on the ship. He is very friendly and outgoing and enjoyed engaging with the passengers. We’d not experienced this on prior cruises and it was really nice to see.

 

Happy to answer any questions any of you may have!

 

Patricia

[Texed]

Elusive,

 

Thanks for posting. :)

[mahdnc]

Patricia,

 

thanks for taking the time to write this review. Great to hear that you had a nice cruise!

[rjrpar]

Thanks Elusive for the review and happy you enjoyed your cruise. We board in 13 days and found the review useful.

Could you answer two questions; 1) did the Elite evening event use vouchers or a specific lounge, and 2) how was the MDR dinner handled for the early seating in Aruba since departure was later than normal?

Thanks in advance.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Thanks Elusive for the review and happy you enjoyed your cruise. We board in 13 days and found the review useful.

Could you answer two questions; 1) did the Elite evening event use vouchers or a specific lounge, and 2) how was the MDR dinner handled for the early seating in Aruba since departure was later than normal?

Thanks in advance.

 

Elite used vouchers - valid most bars, but not all (such as Martini). In Aruba we were fortunate enough to eat the Wahoo we caught :) so were not onboard during the dining hours.

[Ruthk]

Did you like being on the resort deck? any cons?

[rjrpar]

Elite used vouchers - valid most bars, but not all (such as Martini). In Aruba we were fortunate enough to eat the Wahoo we caught :) so were not onboard during the dining hours.

 

Thanks, sounds like a great dinner

[Treacher1]

Thanks for all the details - sailing March 8. You shared a lot of information - could you also comment on who the cruise director was, CD presence, and also entertainment for 14 days. Thanks so much - you have us excited!

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Did you like being on the resort deck? any cons?

 

We love the location on the pool deck. This is our 3rd time on this deck and 2nd time with noise from above issues, despite NOT being below the buffet. Our best cabin was 2104 - had zero issues. We had 2102 on Equinox last year and could hear the opening/closing of the sliding doors above. Figured it was a maintenance issue. Was in 2102 on Eclipse this year and as mentioned, had problems with the crew gate on Deck 14 above - they start using this around 5am and it was really loud. Could also hear the sliding doors. Am trying 2106 on Silhouette next year. We'll see how that works out!

 

Another perhaps downside - with it being so far from all the activities on Deck 5 there is less tendency to walk up the stairs. We have to make an effort to get some walking time in.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Thanks for all the details - sailing March 8. You shared a lot of information - could you also comment on who the cruise director was, CD presence, and also entertainment for 14 days. Thanks so much - you have us excited!

 

Sue Denning is the cruise director and you will see her all around the ship, all the time! She seems to be a Cruise Critic favorite, and I can see why.

 

The entertainment by the pool was so-so. Have seen worse but seen much better.

 

The group by the Ensemble bar (also played in the Foyer) was quite good, but they sure started late in the Ensemble area. If you're an early diner, you will miss them.

 

The group that played up in the Sky Lounge (also played the pool deck on and off) was pretty good, although the lead singer lost her voice early on and since there was no back up for her she pushed through as best as she good. I felt bad for her and hope she didn't do any permanent damage to her vocal cords.

 

Perry Grant is also on board. He's a love him or leave him kind of performer. Not for us, so I won't comment.

[Treacher1]

I thank you kindly for answering my questions - time to start packing ! Looking forward to a great cruise on Eclipse.

[SSFrance69]

Since the elite used vouchers, does that mean there were no passed Hors d'oeuvres during the social hour or did they still have them up in the sky lounge for those that chose to use their vouchers there?

[hospvol]

Thanks for your review. We will be on the March 22 sailing on Eclipse from Ft. Lauderdale.

[drarill]

Welcome back and thanks for taking the time to share your cruise experience with us!!:):)

[jagoffee]

Since the elite used vouchers, does that mean there were no passed Hors d'oeuvres during the social hour or did they still have them up in the sky lounge for those that chose to use their vouchers there?

This is exactly how it worked on the 1/25 Eclipse cruise. Passed around in the Sky Lounge using your tickets.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Since the elite used vouchers, does that mean there were no passed Hors d'oeuvres during the social hour or did they still have them up in the sky lounge for those that chose to use their vouchers there?

 

Not Elite yet, so cannot comment! Perhaps someone else from this sailing can answer you? Oh, see someone already did!

Edited February 23, 2014 by Elusive_Cruiser

[Besse]

Thanks for all the info. We will be sailing on the March 22nd cruise on the Elite.

[SSFrance69]

This is exactly how it worked on the 1/25 Eclipse cruise. Passed around in the Sky Lounge using your tickets.

 

Thanks for answering my question! That's great news.

[USVI-4-me]

Thank you for the review.

We want to cruise on Eclipse again soon.

She's our favorite Celebrity ship.

 

-Marisa

[denisey]

Thanks Patricia for the great review.

 

I was on this cruise also, and had a great time. Mostly because we had such a great group of friends with us.

 

The downside of all the sanitizing is that whatever they were using made me sick. I spent most of the cruise with a sore throat from all the airborne spray in the buffet, and finally had to avoid the buffet completely. I am still coughing. I had the impression that it was the staff that was sick, left over from the prior cruise, but like the OP said, not a lot of information.

[ttax]

For the person who asked about MDR early dinner on the day we were in Aruba, it was handled as any other night. The MDR opened at 6:00 p.m. I don't recall if it was less full than usual.

[vickykay]

We were also on the Feb 8th cruise and totally agree. We had a wonderful cruise inspite of the norovirus issues. We love the ship, felt the MDR was much improved and enjoyed the music. We especially liked that the different groups played at different venues each night and were especially glad to have no loud techno music ( experience this the previous year on the Silhouette which drove many people from favorite venues, ie martini Bar, etc.). Tuscan grill as usual was wonderful. We were lucky to have picture perfect weather for most of the ports.

 

Enjoy!

[TeaBag]

Thank you for your review. Did you like Sue's shoes? What a wonderful collection!

[Elusive_Cruiser]

Thank you for your review. Did you like Sue's shoes? What a wonderful collection!

 

Ummmm....she was usually moving too fast to notice? :D